Mixing it up -- a response

If I understand Ted's dilemma, it's that after a few months of running long Saturdays, tempo on Mondays and intervals on Thursdays; riding long Sundays and fartlek on Wednesdays and swimming Tuesday and Friday -- every week -- it's tough to see continued progress. I agree. Ever wonder why the postman, who walks 5 miles a day delivering mail, somehow has a gut?

I differ from the repetitive approach in a few ways. One is precisely Ted's recent solution. Build in blocks devoted to one event or another. This summer, partly for vacation and partly for training purposes, I drove out west, riding 2-4 hours every day in the unique conditions each state offered (and bricking most rides with a 30' run). The climax of the trip was the RAMROD ride in Mt. Rainier National Park in July, with my brother.

After a trip like that you need a real recovery week. Swimming is great recovery from the joint stress you get riding and running, so I spent several days in the pool. Like Ted, the 50-meter pool. If you're going to be racing in open water, there's no better approximation. (No flip turns -- they mess up your breathing.) And if you spend several days in the pool, you need to mix it up to preserve your sanity. No reason you can't do speed work in the water, like you can on land -- try a short warm-up, 3-4 sets of 5 50-meter sprints, and a short warm-down. You'll have 1500 or more quality meters in without realizing it happened. (And speed work is surprisingly important preparation for the swim leg of a triathlon, which seems like a steady-state effort, but in reality is fartlek -- think of escaping the guy climbing up your back during the starting jumble, or getting back up to speed after sighting somewhere mid-race.)

And then comes the best week -- the run block.

I think my program has a few such blocks built in, usually during the build-up phase. As I approach the race, the need for specificity of training makes rotating through the events every week more important.

The other important way to mix things up is to go through periods of sprint work, tempo work, mileage-building work and back to interval work in the few weeks before the race.

Or so I hear. I've been pretty faithful to a program with these elements since January, and I am generally (although not completely) pleased with the results. I'm also getting tired, and I am really looking forward to hanging up the bike and goggles after one last race this Saturday, and wearing the rubber off the soles of my shoes this fall.